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  1. #16
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    Secret identities are a staple of comics that is simply harder to believably maintain in today's world.

    It's easier to believe that people can fly, or climb walls, or shoot lasers out of their eyes than it is to believe that in a world where cameras are everywhere and where every single person has their own personal camera and video recorder on them at all times, that a person can routinely change identities in an alley or a broom closet or on a rooftop or continually come and go from their place of residence in costume and not have their secret identity become public knowledge in short time.

    I'm glad that secret identities are still maintained in cases where it's always been an integral part of the book, as with Spider-Man and Daredevil, for instance. But I'm not surprised or disappointed that characters like Iron Man and Captain Amercia, who kept their identities secret for years, no longer do. I enjoyed the periods when those characters did have secret IDs but I don't think it's worth the trouble to maintain them now.

  2. #17
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    It depends on the character. Spidey, Moon Knight, etc need secret IDs but it never made sense in the first place for Iron Man, Cap, etc to have one.

    However, I do agree with Brettc1, I do think we should have much more of superheroes interacting with normal people.

  3. #18
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    There are points on both sides of the secret identity question.

    Personally, I do miss them. I do think it "shrinks" a character's environment to be a celebrity, and closes off some kinds of access to some kinds of stories.

    On the other hand, there are some characters that are absolutely supposed to be celebrities (i.e. The Fantastic Four). Further, technology has made it a lot harder to believe that somebody can get away with a disguise than it was in 1963. I also suspect that it reflects the more narcissistic society in which we live ("of course they're out in the open," says the writer, "nobody wants to project themselves onto an anonymous nobody!").

    Big Two Comics aren't written for kids anymore, and that's where secret identities had their most power. The trope displays a character whose true potential isn't fully understood by those around them, who is secretly special (with an element of mocking the surrounding ignorants). It was designed to resonate with children who wanted the security of their regular lives, but aspired to be more (IMO, this is why the original Captain Marvel has never recaptured his initial popularity over the last 30 years; that concept is pure child wish fulfillment...but, I digress).

    Secret ids are a good fit for some characters, particularly the dark vigilante types, but writers need to apply some common sense.
    • There's no point in having a secret identity unless there's some reason to maintain one (vulnerable loved ones, activities that are as likely to piss off the cops as the crooks, viciously vindictive enemies, etc.), and those reasons need to be a consistent element of the character's story (which is not to say they have to constantly be at the center of the character's story).
    • Characters with secret ids shouldn't let themselves get photographed unless they've got full covering costumes, ala Spider-Man or Iron Man, or their costume includes some kind of radical body transformation, like The Hulk or Ant-Man.
    • It's tempting for a creator to portray a superhero in costume as much as possible; that makes no sense for a character with a secret id (it's one of the things that I liked about Moon Knight's concept, even if they didn't always use them this way, his Lockley and Spector aliases provide him with a discrete means of doing his work, saving MK for when it's time to bust heads).
    • It's absolutely insane for a character with a secret id to carry around a commercial cellphone "on the job", and certainly not a smartphone.
    • A character with a secret id has got to have some regularly and explicitly depicted means of evading modern surveillance technology (be it a secret tunnel home, or teleportation abilities).


    So, while I like the old secret id trope, it's not for everybody, and it's got to be used smartly for the ones it does work for.

  4. #19
    Astonishing Member Knives's Avatar
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    Street heroes should keep their identities secret as they would normally be the first to suffer revenge from villains who would chase after their family and friends. But famous heroes or members of the Avengers' main team or groups like FF secret identities are a waste of time since most of these heroes have resources, the money or the government on their side either as government agents or as military.

    The biggest problem is that the technology of the marvel universe makes it impossible for someone to hide their identity for a long time. It would be extremely difficult to do this in the real world with so many surveillance cameras or radars and in the marvel universe you can even use magic to discover this kind of thing.

  5. #20
    Mighty Member Mike's Avatar
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    Yes.
    Very much so.
    Secret Identities added another layer of drama to the characters.
    Today's writers seem to lazy to try and work in a secret identity.

  6. #21
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    No, not really.

  7. #22
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    Even that the MCU and Spidey's cartoon were my first contact with superheroes when I was a child, I prefer secret IDs. Gives me a sense of humbleness, nobleness and humanity. No secret ID adds a strange notion of good acts thinking about glory and recognition, like just the bonus part of being a hero and no normal people to relate with.
    It's a turn off for me this glamour life all the time in comics. They seems "less heroic" to my eyes.

    I think that works well in cartoons or movies because of the limited time to tell a history and to relate with the characters, but not so much in comics and not so much for me to deeply love some characters other than Spidey and Superman more than the good time I have seeing the movie.

    But I think is the new way and I'm getting use to it, because as was pointed out here before, yes, is hard to belive that someone could keep a secret in an universe with magical beings and super geniuses like the Marvel Universe. Makes sense in-universe no secrets.

    If they will go with that logic, there is almost no reason now for characters like Spider-Man keep a secret from other heroes or in his case, from Aunt May. And probably at one point Marvel Comics will go with the movies logic even to these characters too.

  8. #23
    trente-et-un/treize responsarbre's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrNewGod View Post
    There are points on both sides of the secret identity question.

    Personally, I do miss them. I do think it "shrinks" a character's environment to be a celebrity, and closes off some kinds of access to some kinds of stories.

    On the other hand, there are some characters that are absolutely supposed to be celebrities (i.e. The Fantastic Four). Further, technology has made it a lot harder to believe that somebody can get away with a disguise than it was in 1963. I also suspect that it reflects the more narcissistic society in which we live ("of course they're out in the open," says the writer, "nobody wants to project themselves onto an anonymous nobody!").

    Big Two Comics aren't written for kids anymore, and that's where secret identities had their most power. The trope displays a character whose true potential isn't fully understood by those around them, who is secretly special (with an element of mocking the surrounding ignorants). It was designed to resonate with children who wanted the security of their regular lives, but aspired to be more (IMO, this is why the original Captain Marvel has never recaptured his initial popularity over the last 30 years; that concept is pure child wish fulfillment...but, I digress).

    Secret ids are a good fit for some characters, particularly the dark vigilante types, but writers need to apply some common sense.
    • There's no point in having a secret identity unless there's some reason to maintain one (vulnerable loved ones, activities that are as likely to piss off the cops as the crooks, viciously vindictive enemies, etc.), and those reasons need to be a consistent element of the character's story (which is not to say they have to constantly be at the center of the character's story).
    • Characters with secret ids shouldn't let themselves get photographed unless they've got full covering costumes, ala Spider-Man or Iron Man, or their costume includes some kind of radical body transformation, like The Hulk or Ant-Man.
    • It's tempting for a creator to portray a superhero in costume as much as possible; that makes no sense for a character with a secret id (it's one of the things that I liked about Moon Knight's concept, even if they didn't always use them this way, his Lockley and Spector aliases provide him with a discrete means of doing his work, saving MK for when it's time to bust heads).
    • It's absolutely insane for a character with a secret id to carry around a commercial cellphone "on the job", and certainly not a smartphone.
    • A character with a secret id has got to have some regularly and explicitly depicted means of evading modern surveillance technology (be it a secret tunnel home, or teleportation abilities).


    So, while I like the old secret id trope, it's not for everybody, and it's got to be used smartly for the ones it does work for.
    Good points. I think that bit about the Fantastic Four naturally being celebrities is also why Iron Man doesn't make sense with a secret identity anymore; the celebrity CEO is such a ubiquitous part of our culture now, and Tony Stark has been written like that for a little while now.

    Although, most of the extant secret ID heroes don't go to such lengths to avoid surveillance like you described. I think audiences still have the kind of suspension of disbelief required to believe in characters being able to slip off to the side to change into their costume discreetly.

  9. #24
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    I don't, they are more trouble than they are worth and are just used for bad drama purposes. Also given this day and age, keeping a secret identity is pointless. Have a Domino Mask, just use Photoshop to get a good idea. Voice recognition and facial recognition also make them harder, not to mention that nearly everyone has a camera on their phone.

  10. #25
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    As hokey as it is, I do kinda miss the days when Thor was secretly Donald Blake and Iron Man was Tony Stark's bodyguard .
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent Z View Post
    This is an issue applying to most superheroes from the Big 2 regardless of whether or not their identities are secret. How often do the Titans or Green Lanterns interact with normal people these days?
    And that's something I really miss in those titles.

    I can't tell you the number of times I've wanted to see Hal or the other Earth GL's back on Earth.
    Quote Originally Posted by responsarbre View Post
    Good points. I think that bit about the Fantastic Four naturally being celebrities is also why Iron Man doesn't make sense with a secret identity anymore; the celebrity CEO is such a ubiquitous part of our culture now, and Tony Stark has been written like that for a little while now.
    Although, being Iron Man, it could give more freedom for Tony to do what he needs to do as a hero if people didn't know it was public and celebrity figure Tony Stark. There'd probably be less blowback on Tony and Stark Industries.

    Though that also wouldn't really work if Iron Man was involved in Stark Industries as Tony's bodyguard, which reminds me of those times Tony "fired" Iron Man .

  11. #26
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
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    For me the problem with stripping away the secret ID was in most cases it stripped away the character having a life outside of being the hero. Cap used to have a real life, but ever since he was outed he is just all Cap all the time, and he is boring now because of it.

  12. #27
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zero Hunter View Post
    For me the problem with stripping away the secret ID was in most cases it stripped away the character having a life outside of being the hero. Cap used to have a real life, but ever since he was outed he is just all Cap all the time, and he is boring now because of it.
    Not to mention signalling a shift away from a civilian supporting cast.

  13. #28
    Tyrant Sun User leokearon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Not to mention signalling a shift away from a civilian supporting cast.
    You mean the supporting casts that:
    1) haven't changed in decades
    2) get dumped everytime the writer changes
    3) get superpowers

  14. #29
    Cosmic Curmudgeon JudicatorPrime's Avatar
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    As a writer I wouldn't want to deal with them. You inevitably end up dedicating panels to explaining why the identities are still secret in an age where paparazzi and cameras are on just about every city block. Where even the most innocuously curious people would follow Spider-Man if they saw him swinging just to see where he's going. Twitter and other social media would have hashtags and real-time tracking of his travels and activities. We'd know who Peter was in a matter of hours, if not days, because someone would inevitably catch him on camera. Anyone with a pattern and a mask would be eventually unveiled for the public. And if social media eyes didn't catch him, I'm sure someone like the Falcon with his "bird vision" would know, which means any random telepath would know, because Sam has zero mental shielding training. I personally wouldn't want to waste time having to explain away the obvious. Plus, I'd avoid the clichéd story where the villain finds out and does dastardly things to the hero and his loved ones.

    On a side note: Congress seeks to pass legislation that makes it illegal for groups like Antifa to wear anything that covers their faces or shields their identity. (Funny how they didn't pass anything like that in relation to America's original terrorist group, the KKK.) Imagine if the legislature in the comics world did the same. It would first have the effect of deterring vigilantism. But it would also force several heroes into very uncomfortable positions of breaking the law in order to pursue their own moral crusade. I'm surprise they didn't do that back in CW1. Register them, and then make it illegal to wear masks.

  15. #30
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    Of course, if we throw too much common sense at this...
    • The vast majority of superheroes would have been Ceased and Desisted into retirement the first time that they broke something really expensive...
    • Fantastic Four incorporated and Stark Industries would have been sued or regulated out of existence long ago...
    • 99.87% of Stark's waking hours would be spent trying to keep Chinese and North Korean agents out of his computers...
    • The US Army would have hit Captain America with a Stop Loss the second he thawed, and kept him black opsing ever since, except for stops at the lab for more samples...
    • All of those superheroes that privately invaded other countries would have gotten extradited to, or assassinated by those invaded countries...
    • The X-Men would be under indictment as domestic terrorists (they and they Mystique's Brotherhood ripped up Washington pretty good a couple of times)...
    • The Westboro Baptist Church would be constantly raising an atrocious racket in front of both Xavier's School and Dr. Strange's Sanctum...


    So, arguments about the implausibility of maintaining a secret identity in comics based on Real World conditions really don't make any more sense than the comics themselves. It's strictly a preference.

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